Our space at Shizzle Design continues to evolve as we strive to be more efficient with our small business.

You really have to work in a space before you know how that space is going to be used. Our front room is one of those spaces. When we first moved in, we set it up as an office but soon realized there was a better use of that space.

While the office space was nice, we really needed more space for our paint so it’s evolved into more of our paint shop / distribution center over the past few months. We displayed our brushes and painted sample boards on random pieces of furniture but every time we got it all set up. the display piece would sell and back to the drawing board we’d go. We decided to haul a china cabinet from the back to serve as our display. Here’s what it looked like in the back room.

BEFORE

All we had to do was move this from this room to the next ~ easy enough yeah?

WRONG!!!

Just as we were carrying the hutch through the doorway…

The side panel sheet of glass can crashing down through the bottom opening and severed Cathy’s toe. There was so much blood and it hurt so bad that she thought she had lost her foot.

I couldn’t see anything from my end because I was trapped on the other side of the doorway with the china cabinet blocking the doorway!

Oh NO!!

I ran out the other door into the workshop area where we had just offloaded a bunch of furniture!

The only way to get to her was to climb over the mountain of dressers. When I got to her, she was pasty white, already going into shock and trembling like crazy. Blood was EVERYWHERE! How I managed not to pass out is beyond me. I’ve done that in every other crisis situation since the day I was born.

Only by the Grace of God was I able to get her to Emergency so they could slow down the bleeding.

After X-Rays we discovered the glass had severed her toe down to the bone leaving her with an open fracture. I will take six – twelve months to heal. This is how it looked at it’s best. I won’t share any of the other gross pictures for what happened next.

It’s been over a month now and she’s still hurting, wobbling around in her special boot.

While my sister was home recovering from the accident, I went to town on the demon cabinet by first removing all the glass.

I removed all the glass from the doors, sides as well as the glass shelves then gave everything a base coat of American Paint Company’s Wild Horses, a deep espresso brown which is one of my go to colors especially for base coats.

I also wanted to get rid of the mirror but the edges were jagged and very raw. I decided one accident was enough for this demon piece so I covered it up instead with some shutters we had found in collapsed barn last summer. Read all about that awesome barn pickin trip here.

Viola!! No more Glass!!

I couldn’t decide on colors for this piece so I ended up using a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

For the shutters, I slapped on American Paint Company’s Shoreline which looked pretty with all the other colors until I Top Coated it. Both Top Coat and Wax makes paint colors deepen which seemed a little too in my face for all the other colors I had blended on everything else.

Ahh! Too bright! It was clashing with the other colors so I had to tone it down.

I grabbed some APC Clear Glaze and tinted it with a little Home Turf to create my own glaze and did a quick wipe on, wipe off glaze over the blue shutters to tone them down.

Much Better!

I started out painting this piece with the following four colors from American Paint Company. They were all dumped onto a plate and I use the same brush to apply everything without washing in between. I use water to blend when needed to blend the colors and continue to layer until I like what I see.

I like the looks of this but knew it would be a little too much for me to stare at each morning so I used the same colors and started dry-brushing over opposing colors to make it more subtle. Does that make sense?

I bought this vintage piece of hardware at a flea market last summer and decided to hoard it for myself 🙂

These colors make me happy!We are proud to offer the Finest Quality Brushes from Vintiquities! Check out what all the buzz is about HERE. Want to add this fabulous line? Contact me with your name, business & state where you’re located HERE for more information on carrying these amazing brushes in your shop.

The other thing I had to figure out was what to use as the drawer pulls. They were probably 7″ pulls and I didn’t feel like drilling & filling so I went through my stash at home and hauled it all into the shop. One of the things that caught my eye was my daughter’s belt. Hmm, I bet the Junk Gypsies would love this idea too! L-O-V-E their show!!!

As soon as I held them up to the drawers, I knew I had a winner! I love how they turned out. Hope Kekai isn’t looking for her belt!

Ready to Shizzle it?

Join Cathy and I for our next workshop in Jenison, MI. Click here for schedule.

A hui hou ~ Shelly

Did you know…

Shizzle Design is a small family owned business in Jenison, Michigan. My sister Cathy and I work, paint, ship and teach our chalk and clay paint workshops out of the same space where we paint all our furniture. We are truly humbled to be known as a leader in the world of chalk and clay paints.

Cathy and I empower DIY’ers by sharing our years of experience. Stop in for paint and we’ll offer you honest and knowledgeable answers for all your chalk and clay paint needs.

Did you know we are not paid employees of American Paint Company? It typically takes me 10 hours to publish one of my blog posts. Everything from shooting the photographs, writing the content, editing, cropping… is given freely. The only way we make money is if someone purchases paint, workshops or painted furniture from us. If you enjoy the information you get in our website, please share and let us know.

We are so blessed to have taught people from all over the United States and Canada. Join us for one of our super fun hands-on chalk and clay paint workshops. Learn in our casual & relaxed environment. Click Paint Workshops to see a list of current classes offered.

Subscribe to Shizzle Design for tips, tutorials, ideas, pictures, videos for our furniture painted in all natural chalk and clay based mineral paints.

Did you know that you can get these sent directly to your inbox and that it’s FREE? It is ~ what are you waiting for? Enter your email in the right hand column of our blog to stay in the loop.

We have a Shizzle Design Facebook Page. We share all sorts tips, ideas, photos EVERY DAY and offer special deals (which you’ll only know about if you’ve Liked our Facebook Page).

Shizzle Design is an Authorized Retailer for American Paint Company Paints. We offer a large inventory of chalk and clay paint and supplies at our Shizzle Design Paint Shop /Studio, 2018 Chicago Drive, Jenison, MI 49428. We also stock several other shops in the greater Grand Rapid’s area, to find out where, click LOCATIONS. Not from Michigan? No worries, we ship paint and paint supplies worldwide through our Online Shizzle Shop.

Alicia

Carmen Woitas

Wow love it, going to do the same thing to my great grandfather’s Hutch i inherited. So excited to find this blog. Found you from Miss Mustard Seed’s blog fff. I’m a color person not blue and white all the time. Yeah! Thank you!

Sabrina Queen

I would like to see a picture of the whole piece if you can do that. I have been following you for a couple of months. I love what you do and would like to try to do a piece I have similarly to this one. I just never know what to do with all the drawers. Thank you for sharing your gift.

mjhooper2013

Sure feel for Cathy! Hope she has a full recovery and you don’t work her too hard in the meantime..LOL
Love your cabinet. It takes real guts IMO to do what you do and do it so well.
I keep trying to freeform it, but guess I’m just not as brave as you and I end up with simple colorways.
Maybe someday……

You are so amazing!!! I can’t believe you made this fun piece out of that death trap. I love the shutters as the backing too. Featuring at The Handmade Hangout tonight at Redouxinteriors. I want to come take a class with you too!

Come on over ~ ANY TIME! What an honor to be featured today of all days. I was feeling sad today because today was my dad’s birthday, missing him. My childhood neighborhood friend also buried his mom today. The dreary, cold day cleared this afternoon, literally into a beautiful picture perfect autumn day and then I stumbled upon your comment ~ how cool! Thanks for sharing!!!

susano

Wow, poor Cathy 🙁 What a scary experience and there’s a lesson in all that: glass can be dangerous and people need to take care when moving it. Plus, it sounds like it was not attached securely so I guess that means always check! So glad she’s going to heal but sorry she’s suffering.

[…] This piece has QUITE A STORY, and quite a makeover so be sure you read all of Shelly’s at Shizzle Design story. The color choices are so fun, and that is an old belt for the pulls! Just when you […]

Hi Angie! Just saw your message. Thanks for the shout out!! Yes, I’m pretty geeked at how it turned out. I still have some finishing touches but I’m getting there. I’m much better at starting projects than I am finishing them.

Love love love the blending of all those awesome colors – so pretty. And the belt pulls – come on could you get anymore perfect than that! Love how you repurposed bed springs to hold brushes – definitely pinning that idea.

oh my god I finally found my dream kitchen cabinet colors. I’ve been agonizing between do I want red lower cabinets or do I want turquoise lower cabinets or do I want green. You guys have mastered be perfect lower kitchen cabinet 🙂 now hopefully I don’t screw it up lol